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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention is mulling over when to release alarming new statistics showing that as many as 50 percent more people are being infected with HIV each year in the United States than originally reported by the government.

According to AIDS advocacy groups familiar with the CDC, middle level officials at the disease prevention agency have quietly confided in colleagues in professional and scientific circles that the number of new HIV infections now appears to be as high as 58,000 to 63,000 cases in the most recent 12-month period.

On its web site this week, the CDC left unchanged its longstanding estimate that about 40,000 Americans per year become infected with HIV, a figure it says has remained “relatively stable” for most of the past decade.

CDC officials have told leaders of AIDS advocacy groups that the new figures are being withheld while they are subjected to a rigorous peer review process by an unidentified scientific journal, which is expected to publish the findings within the next few months.

Others familiar with the CDC have said CDC would likely publish the new data in its own journal, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

“It seems to be a poorly kept secret,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “Everybody who has dealings with the CDC is talking about it.”

The CDC has stated... that 1-5 million in the USA are possibly infected with hiv... but, a friend of mine and I'll mention no names... is employed with the CDC in Atlanta... she suggested the number would more likely be 3 times if not more... theres a possibility of more than 10 to 20 million Americans walking around infected with hiv... and not know their status... also the United States has the largest percentage to be infected with std's than any other western nation... last year more than 1 million confirmed cases of clamydia alone... gono, syphillis are at a runaway status... increasing significantly from previous years... so with all these std's flying around it looks like few are practicing safe sex... ya think?

Oh course, once this report comes out we'll have at most 2 days of some breathless reporting on cable news, a few politicians will shake their heads, a few promises will be made... and then zilch will be done by anyone.

Excerpt from the article...But the word we’re hearing now is they’re leaning against releasing such bad news on World AIDS Day,” said Driscoll. “There’s some talk of them releasing the new figures during the week between Christmas and New Year’s, when the fewest possible people will be paying attention.”

If this is true, that they intend to withhold the most compelling news available which would be relevant and responsible if released on WAD, then every major tv broadcast company, radio and newspaper should be made aware not only so they can go with the contents of this article, but put pressure on where it counts to get to the source of this thinking and the calendar.

This is damaging to the point where I question whether it is legal, as we certainly know it's not ethical, to withhold information that might inspire people to be tested, have protected sex or both.

If this were anything other than HIV/AIDS, there would be no talk of postponement of the truth, quite the opposite. There would be spreads everywhere.

I'm sending this to several docs I know to get their opinions and a lawyer to get his opinion. If Boston Legal's script writers can put together a plausible (if not ripped from a headline I never read) scenario of a high schooler suing a school system on the basis of being deterred from condom use via misinformation and under-education, and becomes HIV positive as a result, perhaps there's the makings of a lawsuit here. If such info is not disseminated as quickly as possible it could likely be proven the entities holding such knowledge acted in bad faith and did not act in the best interests of not only high risk individuals, but ANY risk individuals.

I dont think the government should manufacture numbers but they have been doing it in economic reports for decades. For some reason the price of oil is not included in inflation calculations and self employed people were not included in employment numbers(this may have changed).

Aside from stating the real numbers what do you expect the government to do? Spend more money on education? The government has proved over and over again this does not work with anything. Do you want them to control our sex lives? Cause the more you beg them to help the greater chance you end up with them in your bedroom.

If you live in US and you dont know how to avoid becoming Hiv Positive you have much bigger problems than being hiv positive.IF you know how HIV is transmitted but still become HIV positive,you have other issues.

Never forget,these are the same people you want to run our health care system.

you are one funny dude. If I consider myself an idiot for getting HIV in early 80s do I have the right to say 99% of people who have been infected since 1990 are fucking morons also? I just don't understand how you expect the government to protect me from my own stupidity? Millions have been spent educating people on the use of rubbers and abstinence as the only ways not to get this shit and yet people still get it. What do you want them to do?There is a third way to make sure HIV is not spread throughout our population,round us all up and separate us from the rest of society. That is the only course the government would be good at. I am not advocating this course of action in any way, but if in late 80s or early 90s the entire population had been tested and those infected separated from those not infected how many people would be positive in general population today?

divide 40,000 or 70,000, 100,000 by total US population and you will see what the real problem is. Not enough people have HIV. Sorta of makes the difference between 40000 and 63000 seem very insignificant,unless you are one of the extra 23000.

Kinda like Regan originally not recognizing hiv/aids..... Ostrich with their heads in the sand--if they had higher numbers they might actually have to take a bigger stand on bringing the thing back in the for front. And Mr. Pres vetoed the increase in Ryan White. Everything is always about politics in this country, not for its citizens.

I dont think the government should manufacture numbers but they have been doing it in economic reports for decades. For some reason the price of oil is not included in inflation calculations and self employed people were not included in employment numbers(this may have changed).

Aside from stating the real numbers what do you expect the government to do? Spend more money on education? The government has proved over and over again this does not work with anything. Do you want them to control our sex lives? Cause the more you beg them to help the greater chance you end up with them in your bedroom.

If you live in US and you dont know how to avoid becoming Hiv Positive you have much bigger problems than being hiv positive.IF you know how HIV is transmitted but still become HIV positive,you have other issues.

Never forget,these are the same people you want to run our health care system.

Jack or, Jake

This isn't (directly) about oil prices excluded from inflation calculations, under-reported employed, etc.--as a topic, it's a life/death affair, it's about being communicated to in a timely fashion, being given as much information about HIV/STDs as about diet and exercise and at a minimum, it's about quality of life in the US and the world.

IF you are so ensconced in your vision of the US, that you don't consider the possibility that an 11 year-old child doesn't know how to protect himself or herself from HIV or any other STD for that matter, then you have a very frighteningly limited view of this situation. Perhaps no replies to your post would ever cause you to ponder another view, or a portion of another view. I may be the present loser known as Em for even trying.

Because you are an HIV positive person, you might consider the voice you are not contributing to the betterment of all PLWHA -- or the converse, the voice that you are using.

To answer one of your questions...yes, I do expect the government to spend more money on education. Education that is relevant and shown to work(to the best degree, calculated or empirically proven, as possible). What's been shown not to work is abstinence only and under-informing---which circles back to the issue here.

The government has covertly (it appears) and now been outed in this article as wishing to delay the release of information that could put some appropriate shock and awe into health-related news and perhaps motivate some funding streams to address the situation. And, pronto. Not that week after Christmas because they believe people are buried up to their eyeballs in wrapping paper, food, booze and each other.

Now. Right Now. So one infection, or one hundred and one thousand infections could be prevented.

If each wave of people, generation or portion of generation, isn't introduced (assaulted with marketing over a steady span of years, decades) to Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, then they don't have it imbedded in their minds. And, the same goes for health information, whether it's about smoking, diet, exercise or protecting one's self from STDs of which HIV is the one we worry most about, flu, Avian flu, malaria, TB, wearing seat belts, and the list goes on and on.

And that requires money, which we all contribute, and it is called education. Like learning to read and use math, it's essential stuff that belongs in the Life Backpack (so named this a.m.) of any kid and, any adult.

you are one funny dude. If I consider myself an idiot for getting HIV in early 80s do I have the right to say 99% of people who have been infected since 1990 are fucking morons also? I just don't understand how you expect the government to protect me from my own stupidity? Millions have been spent educating people on the use of rubbers and abstinence as the only ways not to get this shit and yet people still get it. What do you want them to do?There is a third way to make sure HIV is not spread throughout our population,round us all up and separate us from the rest of society. That is the only course the government would be good at. I am not advocating this course of action in any way, but if in late 80s or early 90s the entire population had been tested and those infected separated from those not infected how many people would be positive in general population today?

divide 40,000 or 70,000, 100,000 by total US population and you will see what the real problem is. Not enough people have HIV. Sorta of makes the difference between 40000 and 63000 seem very insignificant,unless you are one of the extra 23000.

Well, if the gov't shouldn't be helping educate us against this, because we are all morons, I guess they also shouldn't be shelling out money taken from all the 'smart' people out there and giving it to morons in the form of medications.Oh yeah -- while we are on this particular line of reasoning -- let's stop paying for Cheney's pacemaker, as most heart disease is caused by the patient and he must be a moron for having gotten himself in the predicament.

More seriously, yes, most Americans should know how to avoid HIV (and much of the heart disease, liver disease, diabetes, etc -- most human afflictions are caused, at least in part, by their own choices) but to say it doesn't make sense to continue trying to educate is a very large jump -- even for you Jack!

Mike(aka MORON, as my last negative HIV test was in 2001)

edited to add the following forgotten thought:

Jack -- It is called being HUMAN -- perhaps you forgot that this is what we all are - infallible as we are.

It is called accepting responsibility for you own actions. I am not saying the Government should stop educating people on HIV, I was saying they have been doing if for 20 years,and people are still getting infected. Will throwing more money at it decrease infection rate? I doubt it.I did not say we should stop treating those infected so you Cheney thing makes absolutely no sense.

I consider myself a moron for getting infected. It is not the governments fault,it is my fault.

It is called accepting responsibility for you own actions. I am not saying the Government should stop educating people on HIV, I was saying they have been doing if for 20 years,and people are still getting infected. Will throwing more money at it decrease infection rate? I doubt it.I did not say we should stop treating those infected so you Cheney thing makes absolutely no sense.

I consider myself a moron for getting infected. It is not the governments fault,it is my fault.

I love the "I got infected in the 80s so I am somehow superior to you" mentality. Dude, it is a virus. I agree people should be responsible for their actions, but I also think it is not needed to point out to people how "moronic" they are if they do take the responsibility.

The majority of people running around out there without knowing their status while spreading the virus are probably scared to get tested because people would look down on them, categorize them, and write them off - because they are total 'morons'.

Quote

If you live in US and you don't know how to avoid becoming Hiv Positive you have much bigger problems than being hiv positive.IF you know how HIV is transmitted but still become HIV positive,you have other issues.

If having HIV is the ONLY issue in your life, I would think you were blessed. IMHO, we are pretty complicated beings just trying to exist in very complicated times so most of us have a host of issues, it is called being human.

I never said I should be excused from the "moron" tag cause I got this stuff in the 80s. How many times do you want me to say it, I am a fucking moron for getting this crap. I am no better or no less idiotic than someone who got it last week.

Hey man, the truth hurts. We should be more interested in stopping the spread of hiv not if we are hurting someones feelings.

Em, I have contributed. I have not spread my hiv virus to anyone. I have abstained. The fear of giving this virus to some else far outweighs the pleasure I might derive from sex. I am not saying everyone has to do it but if people after all these years are too fucking stupid to put a rubber on,how am I responsible. I get so tired of the anti abstinence drumbeat here. Why do you ridicule something that guarantees the virus is not spread? Oh,I forgot, its too hard. Life is fucking hard. Get real.Each Individual has to demonstrate he is responsible by not spreading the virus. We are all lucky the number of infected in US is so small or they would be rounding us up. If the numbers were higher it would be irresponsible for them not too.Divide 63000 by 300 mill and you get .0002. Thats smaller than a rounding error.

Governments do certain things well and other things they dont do well. They are good at rounding people up so when you are crying for the government to take care of you because you refuse to care for yourself,remember the only government solution to the spread of HIV virus that would work for sure is rounding everyone up.

We have spent millions on HIV education. My kids knew what HIV was from education before they knew what sex was. Dont tell me about 11 year olds. Are you serious? Instead of blaming our government for HIV infections we all need to look in the mirror.

Hey man, the truth hurts. We should be more interested in stopping the spread of hiv not if we are hurting someones feelings.

Life is fucking hard. Get real.

They are good at rounding people up so when you are crying for the government to take care of you because you refuse to care for yourself,remember the only government solution to the spread of HIV virus that would work for sure is rounding everyone up.

We have spent millions on HIV education. My kids knew what HIV was from education before they knew what sex was. Dont tell me about 11 year olds. Are you serious? Instead of blaming our government for HIV infections we all need to look in the mirror.

I'm glad your children received education about HIV and there's not a chance they'll get it because they understand exactly what to do to prevent it. That's great--truly great! And, they received that education from public school? you? church? all three? more resources?

Can you envision that some people don't get that education, even in the good 'ole USA? Or don't " get it " in a way that makes sense?

"An estimated one in 22 men who have sex with men in Florida are HIV-positive, according to a report conducted by the state Department of Health and released Tuesday, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. Spencer Lieb, a senior epidemiologist at the state health department, said that the data were based on an assumption that 10% of men in the state are MSM. He added that the estimate is the first attempt in the U.S. to quantify the impact of HIV/AIDS on MSM (LaMendola, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 11/14).

The report found one in 12 black MSM in the state are HIV-positive, compared with one in 18 Hispanic MSM and one in 29 white MSM. One in 58 black heterosexual men in the state are HIV-positive, compared with one in 148 Hispanic heterosexual men and one in 310 white heterosexual men, the report found (South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 11/14).

Some advocates argued that the state might be underestimating the incidence of HIV/AIDS among MSM, adding that many MSM do not practice safer sex for a number of reasons. "There's no gay man who doesn't know having unprotected sex can lead to HIV," Christopher Lacharite -- a prevention coordinator at COMPASS, a Palm Beach County, Fla.-based gay and lesbian advocacy group -- said, adding, "But sometimes they ignore it, and that's what we have not been able to address."

According to advocates, federal and state funding for HIV prevention and education programs focus on established approaches that might be outdated, such as fliers. "Prevention (efforts) are disconnected from the gay community," Joey Wynn, an organizer at the Broward House in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said, adding, "There are new ideas out there." Lorenzo Robinson of the Palm Beach County Health Department and the state's coordinator for black MSM said, "Obviously, our programs are not working the way we would like" (LaMendola, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 11/14)."

"Prevention (efforts) are disconnected from the gay community," Joey Wynn, an organizer at the Broward House in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said, adding, "There are new ideas out there." Lorenzo Robinson of the Palm Beach County Health Department and the state's coordinator for black MSM said, "Obviously, our programs are not working the way we would like" (LaMendola, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 11/14)."

Timely article, Ray. And in my opinion, it's more than apparent prevention efforts are disconnected from the heterosexual community.

Get over it. You have HIV. The only people discounting a normal human sex drive in the equation is you and the Bush administration. I know some HIV- people I could introduce you to who I think you'd get along fabulously with, they hate HIV+ people too.

Seriously I have never seen so much self-hatred. From your other posts it's clear that you don't want your government to spend on health, nor education to better people's lives and prevent diseases. What do you want them to spend on? Weapons? War? Chemical castration of poz people (cos you know there are less costly and more silent ways of "rounding us up"; you want to keep a low profile on the global media)?

What a waste that with these self-denying, no - self-loathing - views & emotions, you are still living in the biggest democracy and richest country in the world. Really you should trade places with someone living in Iran, preferably a gay person. They would be given life, and you would be given what you wish & crave for - exclusion, damnation, execution?

~why do you hate yourself so much?~

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"If you keep one foot in yesterday, and one in tomorrow, you piss all over today". Betty Tacy

QuoteIt is called accepting responsibility for you own actions. I am not saying the Government should stop educating people on HIV, I was saying they have been doing if for 20 years,and people are still getting infected. Will throwing more money at it decrease infection rate? I doubt it.I did not say we should stop treating those infected so you Cheney thing makes absolutely no sense.

I consider myself a moron for getting infected. It is not the governments fault,it is my fault.

I love the "I got infected in the 80s so I am somehow superior to you" mentality. Dude, it is a virus. I agree people should be responsible for their actions, but I also think it is not needed to point out to people how "moronic" they are if they do take the responsibility.

The majority of people running around out there without knowing their status while spreading the virus are probably scared to get tested because people would look down on them, categorize them, and write them off - because they are total 'morons'.

QuoteIf you live in US and you don't know how to avoid becoming Hiv Positive you have much bigger problems than being hiv positive.IF you know how HIV is transmitted but still become HIV positive,you have other issues.

If having HIV is the ONLY issue in your life, I would think you were blessed. IMHO, we are pretty complicated beings just trying to exist in very complicated times so most of us have a host of issues, it is called being human.

Quote

I never said I should be excused from the "moron" tag cause I got this stuff in the 80s. How many times do you want me to say it, I am a fucking moron for getting this crap. I am no better or no less idiotic than someone who got it last week.

Hey man, the truth hurts. We should be more interested in stopping the spread of hiv not if we are hurting someones feelings.

Em, I have contributed. I have not spread my hiv virus to anyone. I have abstained. The fear of giving this virus to some else far outweighs the pleasure I might derive from sex. I am not saying everyone has to do it but if people after all these years are too fucking stupid to put a rubber on,how am I responsible. I get so tired of the anti abstinence drumbeat here. Why do you ridicule something that guarantees the virus is not spread? Oh,I forgot, its too hard. Life is fucking hard. Get real.Each Individual has to demonstrate he is responsible by not spreading the virus. We are all lucky the number of infected in US is so small or they would be rounding us up. If the numbers were higher it would be irresponsible for them not too.Divide 63000 by 300 mill and you get .0002. Thats smaller than a rounding error.

Governments do certain things well and other things they dont do well. They are good at rounding people up so when you are crying for the government to take care of you because you refuse to care for yourself,remember the only government solution to the spread of HIV virus that would work for sure is rounding everyone up.

We have spent millions on HIV education. My kids knew what HIV was from education before they knew what sex was. Dont tell me about 11 year olds. Are you serious? Instead of blaming our government for HIV infections we all need to look in the mirror.

Uh, where in my posting did I blame the government? You seem a bit obsessed with the government for someone who seems to want nothing from it, IMHO

I dont think the government should manufacture numbers but they have been doing it in economic reports for decades. For some reason the price of oil is not included in inflation calculations and self employed people were not included in employment numbers(this may have changed).

Aside from stating the real numbers what do you expect the government to do? Spend more money on education? The government has proved over and over again this does not work with anything. Do you want them to control our sex lives? Cause the more you beg them to help the greater chance you end up with them in your bedroom.

If you live in US and you dont know how to avoid becoming Hiv Positive you have much bigger problems than being hiv positive.IF you know how HIV is transmitted but still become HIV positive,you have other issues.

Never forget,these are the same people you want to run our health care system.

yes, i would love all the uninsured Americans to have access to a healthcare system run by 'these' people. hip replacements in the U.S. are more succussful and have a shorter waiting period than in any western nation and most of them are Medicare financed

People get HIV the same way they get heart disease they make poor choices. The difference being with HIV it may of come through SEX and in our puritanical culture it's ok to judge people for that while gulping down a Big Mac and a large fries

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If someone tells you potential consequences of a behavior it doesn't mean they jude you or mit they may just give a shit about you

I didn't say anything about gay people, I spoke of HIV+ people, whom you referred to as "morons". Apparently in your "reality" all HIV+ people are not only "morons" but also gay. I don't refer to people I love and respect as morons, and I know quite a few HIV+ individuals that I would hardly consider a "moron". I'm sure there's places besides AM on the internet that would be more receptive to your narrow view of the world.

Oh course, once this report comes out we'll have at most 2 days of some breathless reporting on cable news, a few politicians will shake their heads, a few promises will be made... and then zilch will be done by anyone.

Happy AIDS Day... seems the government/CDC decided not to sit on this information. Oh wait, it's not been officially announced but it's been somewhat more concretely confirmed. Anyway, it's on the front page of the Washington Post so that's rather important.

New government estimates of the number of Americans who become infected with the AIDS virus each year are 50 percent higher than previous calculations suggested, sources said yesterday.

For more than a decade, epidemiologists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have pegged the number of new HIV infections each year at 40,000. They now believe it is between 55,000 and 60,000.

The higher estimate is the product of a new method of testing blood samples that can identify those who were infected within the previous five months. With a way to distinguish recent infections from long-standing ones, epidemiologists can then estimate how many new infections are appearing nationwide each month or year.

The higher estimate is based on data from 19 states and large cities that have been extrapolated to the nation as a whole.

The CDC has not announced the new estimate, but two people in direct contact with the scientists preparing it confirmed it yesterday.

What is uncertain is whether the American HIV epidemic is growing or is simply larger than anyone thought. It will take two more years of using the more accurate method of estimation to spot a trend and answer that question.

"The likelihood is that this bigger number represents a clearer picture of what has been there for the past few years. But we won't know for sure for a while," said Walt Senterfitt, an epidemiologist who is the chairman of the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP), a New York-based activist organization.

There is evidence, however, that at least some of the higher number may reflect an uptick in infections in recent years. Information from 33 states with the most precise form of reporting showed a 13 percent increase in HIV infections in homosexual men from 2001 to 2005.

Ironically, the news comes less than two weeks after UNAIDS, the United Nations agency responsible for charting the course of the global epidemic, drastically reduced its estimate of the number of people living with the disease worldwide from 40 million to 33 million. The reason was the same: Crude methods of counting were replaced by better ones.

"People in the United States are under the impression that this is more of an international than a domestic issue," said Rowena Johnston, vice president for research at amfAR, an AIDS research foundation. "Yet these new CDC numbers are telling us that not only does this continue to be a serious problem, it is actually a larger one than we suspected."

I'm mostly a lurker to these forums... especially since I work for one of those large federal public health agencies >.> but just want to put some news like this in perspective.

The new numbers is a new estimate..and the old numbers were an estimate too. The two estimates were done using very different methods to get at the estimated figure and I'd be inclined to believe the updated number more than the older one, for one thing its more based on testing technology we didn't have before and less of an estimate that was based off of just a lot of statistical manipulation. Statistics makes my head hurt, more power to the people who do that for a living.

The new estimate, as I understand it, is more based on laboratory evidence called "STARHS" (you can google for it if you're really really bored).

The important thing I think to remember is we don't really know how accurate that old number was. It might have been the current number all along. It may have been lower, heck it may have even been higher. Its hard to know really.

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**********Number of years positive: SixNumber of cheesy pictures in POZ issues: Two (the camera adds 20 lbs, seriously!)Number of times I wish I was back on the west coast: Countless

Esq, thanks for those comments about keeping a perspective on the new numbers that are causing some stir.

To me none of the numbers are going to be hugely different one way or another and the more important issues always come down to how do we reduce the infection rate and how can we work to insure those who are infected have access to the best possible treatments and overall healthcare.

So I got a question then. How come the numbers are STEADY and haven't gone down?

Doesn't this state that NONE of the educational methods are really working? Or rather that they are working but that expecting any form of education to get people to make logical decisions during the throws of the most powerful animal instinct known to man (to mate) is never going to work 100%?

A woman lies naked on the bed, the passion has been rising all night. Finally...the quest of this person is going to climax in hot all-night love making.....the air is heavy, full of passion......now what was it they told me in school again....?

That is at least what 99% of the stories are like in the "Am I infected" forum. It's hard to think clearly about anything in that situation....so can we really say that the education system is failing?

R

« Last Edit: December 30, 2007, 08:49:09 PM by HIVworker »

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NB. Any advice about HIV is given in addition to your own medical advice and not intended to replace it. You should never make clinical decisions based on what anyone says on the internet but rather check with your ID doctor first. Discussions from the internet are just that - Discussions. They may give you food for thought, but they should not direct you to do anything but fuel discussion.

I don't believe your average hetero person considers themself at risk for contracting HIV. It is an epidemiologist's job to focus on trends in the epidemic. I get that. Nonetheless, the mainstream media loves to latch on to epi data and pigeon hole who is and is not "HIGH RISK". But in the grand scheme if you're having unprotected sex you could quite easily contract HIV, and that is just not taught or reflected in the mainstream media. I can only fathom how many women go on the pill every day to please their man and don't bother to go get tested with their partner. And we know that with HIV in the absence of vigilant testing emerging trends in data are most likely actually 5 years old. Yesterday's "gay man" is today's "minority woman" and tommorrow?

No doubt some are just going to get past the goalie in the heat of the moment, but alot more could be done to make sure everyone really believes we're all at risk, because we all like to have sex.

I can only fathom how many women go on the pill every day to please their man and don't bother to go get tested with their partner.

Speaking as a heterosexual man, I always have done that....since 1991 when I first had unprotected sex.

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NB. Any advice about HIV is given in addition to your own medical advice and not intended to replace it. You should never make clinical decisions based on what anyone says on the internet but rather check with your ID doctor first. Discussions from the internet are just that - Discussions. They may give you food for thought, but they should not direct you to do anything but fuel discussion.

So I got a question then. How come the numbers are STEADY and haven't gone down?

Doesn't this state that NONE of the educational methods are really working? Or rather that they are working but that expecting any form of education to get people to make logical decisions during the throws of the most powerful animal instinct known to man (to mate) is never going to work 100%?

I definitely agree.

Assuming that the restating of the numbers represent what had been happening all along (and one SHOULD assume that, because that is what the announcement is about) -- then the good news is that the numbers are steady and not rising!

If they are not rising, then education is doing SOMETHING -- it clearly isn't enough, because we do want it to go down, but do say the education is doing nothing would not really be true.

We need to look for new ways to reach people -- there has to be ways to help reduce the rate. However, being a realist, there is no way (short of a preventative vaccine) to get to zero, as sex is too strong a drive and people will always take "risks" that put them in danger.

That's great, but would you consider that action common? The only straight person I have ever met who has done that is a friend of mine who only did it after I tested positive. Prior to my diagnosis she took no such precautions. A few people I knew would occasionally get an HIV test, but it was always very much after the fact. There were always years and multiple partners inbetween tests.